Gora Qabristan: As pre-monsoon prep starts for famed Karachi graveyard, some sites are sacrificed

It is disputed whether some graves have been desecrated to lay drainage pipes.

KARACHI: Rector James Murphy’s soul must be restless. All that remains of this British cleric, who was buried in Gora Qabristan in 1918 and whose grave has attracted the attention of people for years, is a name plaque.

Murphy is not the only victim of a recent development in this famous graveyard of Karachi. Work by government agencies has damaged parts of the graveyard, which is the resting place of British and even Polish soldiers.

At least 100 graves have been damaged, according to an estimate by Menin Rodrigues, who is a member of CARE, a voluntary group that creates awareness about this historic landmark. In particular, it has been the ones that lie along the graveyard’s boundary wall at the Bizerta Line end that have suffered.

“Several graves have been destroyed, most of them only 30 to 40 years old,” he told The Express Tribune. “It could be anyone’s grave, my parents’ graves. Who gave them the authority the right to uproot our graves?”

The digging is being done by the army-run Cantonment Board Karachi to lay perforated 300mm storm water pipes. A drainage system is essential as Karachi gears up for the monsoons when streets tend to flood. Indeed, while Rodrigues appreciates the work, which is needed as the ground is low-lying, he argues that it should have been undertaken carefully so the graves were not desecrated.

The general secretary of the Christian Cemetery Board, Anwar Sadat, admitted that graves have been damaged in the process but he says that the number is negligible. “Where there is good work being done, there is a bit of damage,” came his explanation. He went on to say that when the pathway was being laid, graves had to be removed to make way. “But we spoke to the families, sought their permission and even compensated them,” he claimed.

Gora Qabristan’s state of affairs has hit the headlines intermittently as it dates to pre-Pakistan times and is home to thousands of graves over 21 acres. The oldest grave is dated 1843. Over the years it has been inundated several times by rain and sewage and mayors have tried to allocate funds to fix it up several times. Today a new boundary wall and refurbished pathways are a visible improvement.

But inside some of the marbled graves are buried under mounds of dirt with the area around them dug up to lay the thin pipes to channel out subsoil water. The headstones of some British graves which have been destroyed are being fixed in the lodgings being built for the caretakers.

For his part, Mohammad Kamal, a sub-engineer of the Cantonment Board Karachi, denies that any graves have been damaged and that all work was started with the permission of the Christians. “The drain is for their own benefit,” he stressed. “Earlier, rainwater coming from Bizerta Lines would inundate the graveyard. But now, with the construction of the drain, we guarantee that this won’t happen again.”

He said that they had taken pictures before the work to prove to anyone that no graves existed in the area where they are working. “We know it’s a sensitive issue, and we don’t want to upset the minorities.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2012.